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The Missing Steps
14th June, 2009 - Posted by Archbishop Mark -
I was looking at the Pilgrimage itinerary this morning, and it struck me that perhaps it should be called Pilgrimage in SOME of the Footsteps of St Paul. Because re-reading the Murphy-O’Connor life of Paul, I can see more than ever just how many footsteps the Apostle took. He must have had a great pair of legs - not so much for looks perhaps but for function. I read the other day that the Australian fast bowlers are working hard in England at the moment trying “to put a lot of miles in their legs” for the Ashes series. Well, Paul probably wasn’t much of a bowler and I doubt that he ever embarked upon the flash fitness programs of our bowlers, but he had any number of miles in his legs. Can you imagine Paul playing cricket?!
Not long ago in Canberra, I bumped into the Maltese High Commissioner who was interested to hear that we were going on Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of Paul. When I ran him through our proposed itinerary, he expressed (mock) indignation that we weren’t going to Malta. I had to agree that he was right and expressed my regret that Malta wasn’t a bit closer to Greece or Turkey. Next time, I said. But Malta was a fascinating and important part of Paul’s story, and there’s no doubt that his memory is preserved there in a unique way. In the Acts of the Apostles, we’re told that Paul - having been shipwrecked on Malta - found the locals unusually friendly. Even the snakes, it seemed, weren’t too bad: Paul was bitten by one but recovered quickly. Ever since, the friendly Maltese have repaid the compliment to the Apostle by celebrating his memory all over the island (I don’t think Paul got to Gozo, the other island). And not just all over the island, because during World Youth Day one of the most precious relics of St Paul (a piece of his armbone, I think) was brought from Malta to Australia; so in that sense Paul made it to World Youth Day. All this leaves me thinking that perhaps I really should have insisted that we pop into Malta as part of the Pilgrimage. Next time…though we won’t role-play the shipwreck as part of the deal.
I’m also conscious that we won’t be going too far into Turkey on our journey. That means we won’t be visiting Tarsus where Paul was born and spent at least some part of his early life. It’s way over in the south-east corner of modern-day Turkey where it begins to turn around the corner to Lebanon. Tarsus may not be much these days, but it was quite a place in Paul’s time. It was on an important trade-route which meant it was prosperous; it was an important centre for education in the Greek mode; and it was a city caught between East and West, with the Greco-Roman influence vying with Oriental (mainly Phoenician) influence for cultural dominance. All of this clearly left its mark on Paul who was the son of prosperity, a highly educated man and the product of cultural influences between Western and Eastern. These are among the things that equipped him unusually well for the divine commission that lay ahead.
Another part of Turkey not on the itinerary is what the New Testament calls Galatia. Paul wrote a famous Letter to what he calls “the churches of Galatia”, but there’s long been an argument about what he means by this. So where was Galatia and who were the Galatians? In all likelihood, the Galatia Paul refers to is an area in northern Turkey around Ankara and further west. It was regarded as a barren, treeless land with little to recommend it - freezing in winter and blazing in summer. But it was here that a largely Celtic people settled in about 300 BC, and they had a reputation of being a wild mob with as little to recommend them as the land in which they settled. Paul seems to have preached the Gospel to them almost by accident. He was on his way west towards the coast when he fell ill, so he had no choice but to stay among the Galatians while he recuperated. Being one never to miss an opportunity, he preached the Good News to this wild mob and they seemed to like what they heard. Communities of faith were born. But that wasn’t at all the end of the story. After Paul had brought these communities to birth, well-intentioned Jewish Christian missionaries (probably from Antioch) came in his footsteps, systematically undoing what Paul had done - telling the Galatians that they had to become Jews in order to be Christian. What Paul had told them was the opposite - you don’t have to become a Jew to be a Christian. That’s what provoked the furious outburst that we know as the Letter to the Galatians. But we pilgrims will have to wave at Galatia from afar, because the only place in Turkey we’ll be spending some time in is Ephesus which became Paul’s missionary base on the west coast of Turkey, looking across the water to his other great Aegean missionary base, Corinth.
Tags: Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, footsteps of saint paul, Galatia, Malta, pilgrimage, st paul, Turkey
Posted on: June 14, 2009
Filed under: Archbishop Mark's teachings
1 Comment
Fr Paul Shannahan sm
June 14th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Dear Bishop.
Greetings as you journey on.
I was chaplain to a Kiwi group of 24 last August on the Harvest tour you are beginning. V hot in August I can verify.
We found the long distances did not leave too much time at the few Pauline sites - you may want to be ready to insist on more time and explanation at such places.
Will watch for your report and photos and relive the rewarding experience.
Go for it. Yes what a man was our Paul. One just boggles at the distances he covered.
Paul Shannahan sm Wellington.
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